Decorative stenciling by applying paint or ink through patterned cutouts in sheet or screen material has long been popular both as a home craft method and as a limited or custom production method for small articles. Properly done, stenciling can accurately and repetitively transfer simple and complex artistic and graphic patterns and lettering to a variety of small objects, enhancing the attractiveness of the objects. Many such objects may be the subject of application of decorative designs by transfer of liquid or semi-solid artistic media to the surface of the object and fixing the media to the object by curing, drying or baling. In particular, ceramic, metallic and glass objects are suitable for application of decorative stencil patterns by reason of the relatively smooth exterior surfaces they offer to receive and display the designs as the object is in use.
A critical factor in proper application of a stencil design is adherence of the sheet stencil medium to the surface of the object to receive the design. Flat surfaces on objects present little problem, as the flat stencil sheet can be closely pressed to the flat object and, if necessary, secured by tape or other clamping-type pressure during the application of the stencil design, typically by brush or other flexible applicator that will carry the fluid art media to the surface through the stencil cutout. However, curved or irregular surfaces are far more difficult to achieve the necessary close adherence of stencil sheet medium to object surface. Even more difficult is an object with an outside corner that the stencil must wrap around. Since the stencil sheet medium is provided in flat format, bending the medium to a curved surface deforms the sheet medium which will then tend to lift away from the object surface. If the stencil design is not tightly fitted to the object surface, ink or paint will leak and spread under the stencil when applied, resulting in an unacceptably poor image due to smudging, blurring and inexact lines.
The present invention is expressed herein as a method of applying a stencil design utilizing a novel stencil sheet material that enhances the exact adherence of the stencil pattern to the surface of the object to be decorated.